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A Love Story – Throwback

Today’s Throwback was originally posted March 4, 2013. I’d forgotten how sappy it was. Also, due to an “update” yesterday, my WordPress Reader is not working again. (sigh)

About a decade ago I was in a relationship that ended badly – very badly. I mean World War III badly. It just didn’t end well at all. Afterwards I did something I very rarely do, I learned from the experience. I promised myself that I wasn’t going to seek a relationship. All I wanted to do was date. That’s it, just date. People don’t do much dating anymore. It either ends with one date or they are ready to move in after the second date. It’s a shame really. It took some time, but it happened. I met some guys who didn’t want a relationship, but weren’t expecting to just get it on. For about two years it was good. No expectations, just fun. Maybe sex, maybe not. Just enjoying each others company.

One night I was online in a chat room and some guy started chatting with me and asked if I’d to meet for coffee. He seemed nice enough, so I asked him to meet me at Starbucks just a few blocks down from me. I was very pleased when he walked in. Not only was he handsome, he was charming. I hit the jackpot tonight, I thought. And I was right.

We bought our drinks and chatted shortly, but the shop was crowded and there was no room to sit. That gave me the opportunity to tell him that I had a week from hell at work and suggested we go to the beach. He agreed. At that time I lived in Brentwood and some of the roads twist and turn. He asked if I knew how to get to the beach and I told him no, and said “it’s that way somewhere,” as I waved my arm in the direction I believed was west. At one point, as we drove around, he asked me if I knew where we were going. I told him I had no idea and we laughed. He found my spontaneity endearing.

Now there was one very important rule that I had regarding dates. If my date got on their cell phone then there would be no second date. I wouldn’t say anything, I wouldn’t get upset. That would just be the end of the road with them. On this particular date I was warned in advance. He told me he took care of his grandmother who had Alzheimer’s and that if she called he would have to answer. I was a bit skeptical but agreed it’d be no problem. He was right. She called, and then she called, and then she called, again, again, and again. Each time she called my date never got upset. He never even breathed a frustrated sigh. Each time she’d say the same things she said five minutes ago, and he would respond the same way each time. My little heart was pounding. All I could think was “OMG, he’s a really nice guy.”

We didn’t end up going where I was trying to get us, but, we did get to the beach near Malibu at a popular local restaurant named Gladstones, which is one of the rare business’s that is built literally on the beach. Gladstones has very bright lights, spot lights actually, that shine directly on the beach. This forced us to walk down a bit to find a place where we wouldn’t be blinded. Out of the spotlights, we chose a nice place on the beach where the only light was a beautiful full moon shiningly brightly on a cloudless night.

The time went by so fast. We didn’t realize we had been talking for five hours. Going home, as we were about to kiss goodnight, Bobby Darren’s song “Beyond the Sea” came on. We were both stunned. The timing was amazing. It was then that I knew that I had found my soul mate, Maurice.
This year we shared our 9th year wedding anniversary. (Now 11th year)

OOOOHHHHHHHH! Bradley, what a romantic story that really did have a happy ending. Your ‘just dating’ idea appeals to me, maybe for a little further down the road.

Bradley

October 14, 2016 at 08:13

I don’t know if people really ever “just dated” around, but you see it in old tv shows and movies. It was exactly what I needed at the time. I tell people that the best way to find “the one” is to stop looking.

My Granny used to live on Mayfield Avenue in Brentwood, and Gladstones was 2 minutes from my house.

I only went to Gladstones a few times. If you told the staff it was your birthday, they would give you a huge slab of chocolate cake, so in high school my friends and I would go there for lunch and lie, taking turns having “birthdays.” (The servers didn’t check our driver’s licenses for verification of b-days. I’m sure we’re going down below for our sins, LOL!)

Bradley

October 13, 2016 at 14:38

I’ve never eaten at Gladstone’s, just used their beach. 😀 The picture is a bit old (there’s not much brown in my beard anymore) but it is one of my favorites.